


world enough, and time

by MathildaHilda



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: Assassin's Creed: Valhalla Spoilers, Canonical Character Death, Existential Crisis, Non-Linear Narrative, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:20:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27991407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MathildaHilda/pseuds/MathildaHilda
Summary: There's laughter in the Grey.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	world enough, and time

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for Assassin's Creed: Valhalla.
> 
> Title from "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell.

_she lied_ , whispers a soul that’s been dead longer than most.

 _she lied_ , whispers another, that has been dead for far less time.

 _of course, she lied; what did you expect_ , you whisper to yourself. In all honesty, you’re not all that surprised.

In the end, it doesn’t matter if she lied. The outcome would have been much the same.

Different choice and the world would have died, and you would have lived, but it wouldn’t have mattered, because, well, in the end? None of this will matter. Only details matter.

Because the details, however insignificant to those outside of your own strange existence, are far more important than the end of the world.

Eventually, the end of the world will matter. But, not today. Not tomorrow. Not at the end of time.

It will matter. Everything will matter.

Eventually.

~

Your name is Miles.

It is the last thing you said at the end of a very long sentence for a very long time, so it has to be true. You have to be Miles. It is a name.

Twenty-five sounds like a good number, so that must be your age. You read it at the end of a long string of code, so it has to be true.

_(nothing is true,)_

But, if nothing is true, how then can you call yourself Miles. How then, can you know the number twenty-five and expect it to be true. You don’t know the importance of the number or the name.

You know that it matters.

You know that it is true, despite what the ghosts tell you.

You know that in the end, you will forget all this and more.

~

There is something else living inside this place. You don’t have a real name for it.

The Grey seems an apt name for it, but you don’t know if it’s the right one.

The _ghost-that-is-not-a-ghost_ calls it Valhalla. If you remember correctly, or if you remembered at all, you’d think it strange that a place as hollow and bright as this would be an afterlife for a forgotten world.

You don’t think it too strange, seeing as you remember little of anything past this point in your existence. You don’t think it strange, seeing as you and everything in this place are as hollow and quiet as a grave carved out for the world thousands of years ago.

You think the ghost pities you. The others didn’t. You don’t think they pitied you, at least.

Minerva called you a brave fool. Jupiter never spoke. Juno only laughed.

This _ghost-that-is-not-a-ghost_ looks at you, cocks its head to the side, and speaks only falsehood.

You know it is false. You know it is true. You know the _ghost-that-is-not-a-ghost_ is both right and wrong.

You know this. In the end, when his watch ends and another being of light claims a place beside you, it doesn’t really matter if he was right or wrong.

What matters is this; the _ghost-that-is-not-a-ghost_ existed. Shaped the world to this very moment where the tree of life and existence branches out and gives you every possibility imaginable.

They shaped the world. Created it. Created this place of hollow light.

You would pity them if you didn’t know what you know now.

~

You accept it.

 _you fool_ , Minerva whispers from somewhere.

Knowledge doesn’t build history. Not in the way the Isu think. You know this. You accept this.

Minerva doesn’t. Why should she accept it when she created the perfect weapon and the perfect prison all in the same?

She shouldn’t have to accept it, but maybe she should.

After all, you are listening to echoes of ghosts that have long since accepted their own deaths.

They just can’t accept yours.

~

What is your name?

You don’t know.

It used to have meaning. Importance. Power.

Your hands used to be scarred. Burnt. There used to be a swiftness and a sharpness to your fingers. You could kill a man with a simple flick of your wrist. A simple acceptance of fate.

Your fingers grow cold. Fades away.

You don’t know your name.

You read time. Read knowledge. You read every possibility ever imagined. Read every time the world ends. Every time it is saved.

Desmond saves the world once. It changes the course of human and Isu history. Changes what was to come.

Desmond saves the world once. Saving the world comes at a heavy price.

There’s laughter in the Grey.

There is death.

~

When Layla steps away from the broken simulation of Valhalla, you’ve seen it before.

In every branch of possibility, you see her take that crucial step.

You see her refuse the _ghost-that-is-not-a-ghost_. You see her accept it.

You see her accept her fate – be it that she stays behind or that she leaves you. Leaves you alone in the hollows of fate and possibility.

Leaves you where nothing – and everything – is true. Where you will stay for all time and until the end.

Everything – and nothing – is permitted in this place without existence and time. You can’t change it. Only help it on its way to a new possibility.

Maybe once you wanted to change it. Now you know that impossibilities and possibilities are one and the same.

The flip of a coin can make or break the already fragile alliance between life and death. The line between what is right and what is wrong is thin enough that a single step will change the course of history.

Not the past. You leave the past alone.

You don’t know why. You don’t know pain the way it is meant to be known. It does hurt to remember.

So, you try not to.

~

Your name is Desmond Miles.

_~~(desmond miles is twenty-five years old.~~ _

_~~desmond miles gave his life to save the world.~~ _

_~~desmond miles freed Juno.~~ _

_~~desmond miles damned the world.~~ _

_~~desmond miles saved the world.)~~ _

__

You are twenty-five years old.

_~~Your name is~~_ Desmond _~~Miles.~~_ ~~~~

_~~Desmond saved the world.~~ _

Desmond damned the world.

Desmond died for the world.

Desmond is dead.

_~~You are~~_ twenty-five _~~years old.~~_ ~~~~

_~~You are dead.~~ _

_~~Your name is Desmond~~_ Miles.

You existed.

_~~You damned the world.~~ _

_~~Once upon a time,~~ _ _you existed. ~~~~_


End file.
